kraftwerk - First Albums on Green and Red Vinyl

Hi Guys,

I was browsing the racks in Selectadisc the other evening and came across what they had marked as a Limited Edition (500 only) reissue of the first UK Kraftwerk album (their first and second together as a double album I understand - with a blue wave form on the front).

Got it home and its on green and red vinyl, complete with proper swirly vertigo labels. I briefly thought wow, cool . Unfortunately the pressings are marked and the marks are very audible . So they are going back.

Looking closely though, the labels look like badly scanned copies and the whole package has a bit of a rough feel to it. I'm assuming its something a bit less than official. Has anyone heard about or got info on this release?

The music (marks aside) which I'd never heard is actually very good - I'd not heard this early Kraftwerk stuff before - Its kind of like Kraftwerk but not (its got stuff like guitars and drums in parts). One part Kraftwerk, one part Meddle era Pink Floyd and one part other weird shit.

I was particularly taken by a track on the second album called Wellenlänge, which is sublimely hypnotic, a bit "Eno"ish and wouldn't sound too out of place if it were released today.

Think I'll just have to get a CD copy.

 

Is this the one in the single / non-gatefold sleeve? If so I saw a copy in Piccadilly Records in Manchester. I was also more than a bit surprised to see not only the Vertigo label on the sleeve, but what looked like the original catalogue number. I suspect it's a bit fishy as Vertigo no longer exist as far as I'm aware. It's a great album if you can find a nice pressing - might be worth swapping it and trying another copy as I've no idea if Kraftwerk are going to press it officially again. Orginal pressings are very hard to find in good condition, a mint swirl label copy will easily make over 100 quid, and the slightly later 'spaceship' label copy (I have one of these) will probably set you back 35-50. It has been re-released previously on both vinyl and CD in the original German 2 seperate albums with traffic cone covers format (German originals on Philips are worth a fortune), but again I'm not sure as to how official these are.

Tony.

 

That sounds like exactly the one (didn't know it was coloured vinyl til I got it home). Single not gatefold, vertigo label on the sleeve, original catalogue number, disc 1 on red vinyl and disc 2 on green (both kinda marbled effect), vertigo swirl label on side a and what looks like a bit of a rough scan of the original label on side b. It does seem a bit fishy.

Apart from the graunches on it, its a very good album (Auntie likes it and she's not a huge fan of the boys from Dusseldorf)

I know. As soon as my suspicions about this issue were aroused I quickly had a look at my copy of RCRR, went white and decided I'd probably try and get it on CD

 

I have these albums on a proper Vertigo release, the packaging is the Gatefold sleeve with the two different waveforms on front and back. The inside of the gatefold is a collection of images of the very hairy Ralf and Florian and some instruments.
The sleeve has the serial number 6641 077, but the inividual labels (Vertigo 'Flying Saucers'!) have the numbers 6499 268 and 6499 269 and publishing dates of 1972. The whole thing is in excellent condition and I think it cost between £25 and £30 a couple of years ago.

These are interesting albums and very different from later Kraftwerk, they experiment with loads of instrumentation and also play around with timings, randomly slowing down and speeding up on some tracks. I think I'll play this again now!

 

There is a distinct flow through Kraftwerk's development, Kraftwerk 1 starts from a very different place as it dates from when Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother were still in the band – they left and formed Neu! The next album, 2, is definitely more restrained and introspective (it really misses Dinger's drumming) yet continues down a similar path. Introspection probably reached it's peak on the next album, Ralph & Florian, and by this time they only had one direction left to go… less introspection. Autobahn was the beginning of what most people see as 'proper' Kraftwerk and the journey from Radio Activity to Trans Europe Express finally nailed it down. I really like the early stuff – I suspect 1 gets the most plays these days. I'm lucky enough to have bought the UK Vertigo albums long enough ago that they were just normal price, sadly no swirl labels, but nice near mint copies of all.

Tony.

 

I've noticed a mini glut of Kraftwerk vinyl has suddenly appeared in London, some of it on coloured vinyl. Autobahn on blue vinyl and Delay on I think green vinyl, I've also seen Monster Movie and Unlimited Edition.

But yeah, if you look at them closely they just don't feel quite 'right'.

 

The above are Can albums, not Kraftwerk, and should be perfectly official on Spoon Records (Can's own label).

Tony.

 

Kraftwerk are like many popular groups, their material is highly bootlegged. I own all of their albums in original form on vinyl even the first Tone Float LP (under the name Organisation), but when a gorup like Kraftwerk have a great deal reclusiveness about them, this kind of encourages bootleggers to produce even more crap.

Beware of alot of the CD releases too, there are a huge amount of unofficial CD recordings billed as 'special DJ remixes', 'rare trax' etc., etc., and especially live recordings but these for the main part have terrible sound quality. One of the worst live CD sets is a double album called 'Heute Abend', it's totally unlistenable.

If you really want the first Kraft werk LP's the best bet is to check out sites like www.netsounds.com or www.gemm.com and find original copies. Ebay would also be a good place to check too.

BTW: The gatefold Kraftwerk 1 & 2 LP referred to in the earlier posts although being the first UK release and packaged in a double pack was two separate LP releases in Germany. There are quite a few versions of the separate Kraftwerk 1 & 2 albums going around and some fetch high prices such as the Japanese copies. Unless you are a Kraftwerk nut like me I would just try and find a good original UK gatefold copy.

If anyone's interested I have a 1981 Kraftwerk live show now copied over to 2 x CD set. It was copied over from a tape recording done live at the venue at the time and I have tried to clean and amplifiy the recording to preserve it's sentimental value. In the past on the Kraftwerk forum I offered this for trade or on the basis that other members just reimburse me for the cost of the CD-r's etc. Not sure if I would be permitted to offer this here for similar.

I also have an Associates live recording from the early 80's cleaned and copied to CD as well as three David Sylvian concerts recorded live in Boston, NYC and San Francisco on his Everything & Nothing tour.

 

Selectadisc also had a copy of Computer World (similarly marked a Ltd Edition reissue of 500. My guess is that would also have been coloured vinyl (luminous yellow mebbe ), but as I already have a copy I didn't think about it. It would make sense that it came from the same source. Reports of similar stuff makes it seem to me someone's being very naughty.

The numbers on the labels are exactly as stated in Lord's emails. Looks to me like they are straight scans of original labels. Anyway its definitely going back. I won't pay silly money prices for any record, so it'll be the CD for me now I think.

 

Whoops!......

 

Ralf and Florian have always resisted re-releasing the first two Kraftwerk albums, *all* of the reissues of these currently available, on all formats, are bootlegs.

German Phillips first pressings will set you back a bit, but I spotted about half a dozen in Tokyo, average price £15

-- Ian

 

I could always do a 'back-up' to cd-r if required. I do have a bootleg CD called 'Fruhwerke - Early Works', this is pretty good,, has the very first album Tone Float, the live Koln concert, the first German single 'Kouhoutek', plus a few more. It's not bad quality actually.

 

So no CD option either - damn - looks like I may have to splash some real cash. Hrmpf. I took it back on Saturday and yer man at the counter had a look at other copies and they were all pretty much the same (some kind of gluey marks) and he said "you know its a bootleg don't you" and I said that Yes, I'd worked that out.

Anyways, isn't it illegal to sell boots?

 

Its illegal to sell promos too but it doesn't seem to stop anyone

 

I wouldn't feel even slightly guilty about buying a bootleg in this case. It used to be in the public domain, and it's only because Ralf and Florian are so damned precious about protecting their past and expunging things which in hindsight they don't like that it's only available in bootleg form.

-- Ian

 

Can't say I feel guilty. I only took the bootleg back because it was substandard.

... and thinking about it further, the sound quality was fine where the marks didn't intrude. If it weren't marked I'd have probably just thought - Cool a green and red vinyl bootleg and kept it.